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Hughesnet Continues Billing After Account Cancellation

I phoned and requested they cancel my account, but my account was not cancelled and they continued to charge me! I had already moved to another city, and had disconnected and removed my Hughesnet equipment in early November of 2012!

I have since settled with the collection agency, but want to share with everyone the underhanded business practices of Hughesnet which I encountered.

The Billing Support chat session follows:

Dan: I had cancelled service in early November, therefore there should not have been charges for November or December.

Sabrina: I understand, Dan; however, there is no note from our Account Management Department that your account, DSS10009436, has been successfully cancelled.

Dan: And Hughesnet always collects fees in advance, so there should not have been attempts to collect in November or December...

Sabrina: That's why your account remained active until January 2013, the balance remain unsettled and it was closed/cancelled for non-payment on 01/09/2013.

Dan: Can you please remove the current balance? I had indeed requested cancellation in early November, and am not responsible for your Account Management Team failing to successfully cancel my account.

Sabrina: Yes, that is correct. We tried to collect your payment on 11/25/2012; however, your credit card payment authorization was declined and was not re-attempted.

Dan: Why try to collect on 11/25/2012, since I had already requested that the account be cancelled?

Sabrina: I understand, Dan. Do you have a confirmation number for the cancellation of your account?

Dan: No I do not. As I recall, your phone systems kept me on hold for many minutes that day, and disconnected my call. Hughesnet knew of my request to cancel, and failed to honor my request.

Sabrina: Please be advised that we need to process the cancellation properly and discuss some important information before we proceed with the cancellation of your account.

Dan: Yes. Through no fault of mine.

Sabrina: Since your account was not successfully cancelled, billing continued. We continued to provide you service and that makes the billing valid; however, it's just that you are not using the service.

Dan: Since Hughesnet failed to honor my request to cancel, the billing is valid? How is this possible?

Sabrina: Dan, please be advised that your account was not successfully cancelled since you disconnected the call while you're being connected to Account Management. We continued to provide you service and that makes the billing valid.

Dan: Sabrina, please be advised that I requested my account be cancelled, and Hughesnet disconnected the call. The billing is not valid.

Sabrina: Yes, you requested for it, Dan; however, we need to have a confirmation. It was not confirmed since it was not successfully cancelled.

Dan: Evidently, Hughesnet is not as reputable as I had thought. Hughesnet disconnected my call. Your equipment failed, and now apparently you too will fail to do right by a customer by removing these charges from my account. Why is this?

Sabrina: Dan, please be advised that we need to have confirmation, a verbal confirmation from you and from us that we should proceed with the cancellation of your account. A simple notification, I believe, will not be enough without a confirmation.

Sabrina: About removing the charges, I am just basing my responses from what I am seeing on my system.

Dan: I confirmed during my request for cancellation that I indeed wanted to proceed with cancellation. How many more months would I have been charged after I had requested cancellation if my credit card would have continued to accept these continuing charges? Months? Years?

Sabrina: Dan, you were informed that your call will be transferred to Account Management for the cancellation of your account. You should have received a confirmation from them that your account was successfully cancelled.

Dan: Yes, I should have received a confirmation from Account Management. Why did they fail to contact me with such a confirmation? Hughesnet has had my contact information for over 10 years.

Sabrina: I understand, Dan. I regret we don't have ways yet to know that your call was not transferred to Account Management Department and I believe, as a customer we should make sure that our account will be cancelled and there should be a confirmation as there will be payment involved if it was not successful cancelled.

Dan: I see. As a customer I understand that I requested cancellation and my request was ignored.

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